"Repeated requests by me to Mr. Virgulak and the OHPA Attorney Avery resulted in them telling me that they were "vetting" the applicant and would not share any information witwith me. I had to pull teeth to get just the name and address, only to come up with some mysterious company (same owner) but graphic arts printing (aka, the menus and fancy presentation stuff that was given to OHPA Board).

Then tracking them down resulted in responses like "why are you asking questions about our business", and even a mysterious hang-up when some poor clerk slipped up and transfered my call to one of the "partners", who apparently was mortified that I had tracked them down!

I have a long string of emails pratically begging Mr. Virgulak not to get hooked up with those folks......now filed under "I told ya so......."

We have a City Manager whom in the very least has enabled this thievery and when all is said & done he also will most likely be found as guilty as the rest....how in the world does the City Council & Mayor continue to allow this individual to run our City with continued access to OUR MONEY/THEIR MONEY/EVERYONES MONEY????

Oh my, this is serious, Doug! Pickup is smack in the middle of authorizing millions of dollars of payments to RM since '08? http://www.lausdeo10580.com/lausdeo10580/2012/12/justice-for-rye-golf-club.html

Membership has been decimated over the years, dues have been raised steadily (to fund RM it seems), families have been priced out of the club, and you stiff-armed and stonewalled questions from Joe Sack about this company back in July?

Yes, this is very serious:

----- Original Message -----
From: French, Douglas H.
To: Council&Manager Subject: Re:
Sent: Jul 22, 2012 8:24 PM
Joe -- I do represent the City Council, I am the president of the Council as the elected Mayor. Should you disagree, then get 3 other members of the Council to agree with your point of view. Otherwise, staff will respond based on the consensus of the Council. As I said, I am working with our colleagues on this matter. Doug

----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Sack
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 07:43 PM
To: French, Douglas H.; Council&Manager
Subject: Re:
Excuse me, the city manager reports to the council not to you. I expect to receive a report from the city manager ASAP.

￼￼￼￼￼￼￼----- Original Message -----
From: Joe Sack
Sent: Saturday, July 21, 2012 10:29 AM
To: Council&Manager
Dear Scott: What is RM Staffing and Studio Y, what connection do they have to the Rtye Golf Club, and to individuals at RGC. Thanks, Joe

These were excellent points & well explained for the viewers last night Bob.

But based on what’s coming out - there never was a reason for any food minimum. Or let me amend that to read any “legitimate reason.”

Because like our own Captain Renault claiming that he’s “shocked, shocked!” about alleged gambling taking place at Rick’s Café Américain, Mr. French started last night’s meeting saying gravely that the situation at Rye Golf Club had become “very, very serious now.”

Well, when did Mr. French finally get religion?

Could it be after he blocked every public call for prior city council led investigations into Hen Island filth, Schubert’s wetland destruction, his own illegal Rye rental house and double STAR exemptions, Rye TV shenanigans, the “unrecorded” Fireman’s workshop meeting, whistleblower Dapolite, boat basin managerial fictions, multiple city hall violations of the NYS FOIL laws and his own repeated dodges of questions about Rye Golf Club management and financial affairs until he was FINALLY FORCED by a large angry crowd of swindled taxpayer golfers to remove his municipal soul mate Mr. Pickup from controlling everything for once and got capitulated into a real investigation that neither man called meritorious or necessary? In a word, yes, that’s when he got his religion, like a death bed convert.

And look at where we are today after just a few short weeks of subpoena power. A secret private/public empire is surfacing like a malignant Atlantis on the Post Road replete with public money flushing through shell company cut-outs to unknown recipients, an interlocking web of oblique public and private payrolls, dummy offices, sham invoicing, municipal employee nepotism hires and much, much more. The latest week’s haul, for those who haven’t yet seen it, is here –

Personally I learned my own lesson long ago about board of director service without meaningful authority. Anyone who tells you “you can’t see that - or - you can’t ask that” is using you. And it always ends badly for the dutiful “server.” You’re a fall guy (or fall girl) for the duplicity of others when the crunch inevitably comes. And Rye government, as I’ve long advised MyRye readers and elected officials alike, has been riddled with serious corruption for years. And the voices who have repeatedly denied it are silent now.

So Bob – why not chow down on your minimum for one last season at our local version of Rick’s Café – and then sit back and wait to see what the clean-up crew discovers and sets to rights. My bet is that the level of criminal siphoning from this singular entity will be found so substantial that 2013 membership fees can be lowered, food prices dropped and overall club services remarkably improved. And your minimum here will go the way of the under-table bribe, the Dodo Bird and the rest of the low characters now making their bows in our very own non-fictional Casablanca.